Welcome to our Beaver Lake Fishing Home Page
Beaver Lake is located high in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, which is the birthplace of the White River. The lake features around 487 miles of natural shoreline offering visitors plenty of recreational opportunities. Beaver Lake is a popular vacation destination for boating, fishing, golfing, hiking and just relaxing around the beautiful lake. Beaver Lake has more than 28,000 surface acres of water.
Beaver Lake is an awesome multi-species fishing lakes. Striped bass are king here, but there are a variety of other bass, walleye, many different types of panfish and some awesome trout fishing close by.
Primary Species of Fish
Striped Bass, Walleye, Trout, Spotted Bass & Largemouth Bass
Beaver Lake has a tremendous striped bass fishery with good numbers of them and some huge fish too. The largemouth bass fishery is also very good with numerous tournaments occurring on the lake every year. Spotted bass are here in large numbers but the average size is really small on this lake. The walleye and trout fishery is also very good below the dam in the Beaver Lake Tailwaters.
Secondary Species of Fish
Smallmouth Bass, Muskie, Catfish, White Bass, Perch, Crappie & Bluegill
The secondary species of fish in this lake are still available in good enough numbers that if you want to target them, you definitely can. For most anglers, they will catch some of the other species of fish while targeting striped bass. For some anglers, they enjoy fishing for a variety of fish and they will downsize their lures to be able to catch a variety of bass, panfish and other species of fish too.
Beaver Lake Tailwater
For those of you that like to fish for trout, the Beaver Dam Tailwaters flow for about 7.5 miles through northwest Arkansas before eventually flowing into Table Rock Lake. Beaver Lake is part of the White River and the upper White River provides some excellent fishing for rainbow trout and brown trout below the dam. This area is stocked and anglers enjoy catching trout here year round. The walleye fishery is also very good in this tailwater fishery.
Beaver Lake Can Be Tough to Fish
If you do some searches on this lake, you will see plenty of people joking that Beaver Lake is the dead sea. While this lake can be very tough to fish at times, especially on new anglers to the lake, there are a lot of quality fish in this lake and a bunch of fish species to make it more fun once you figure it out. The biggest thing with Beaver Lake is that anglers need to get comfortable fishing much deeper and so many species of fish can be found suspending around the thermocline over deeper water.
Use Lighter Line
Beaver Lake is known for its clear, deep waters. While the waters can definitely get murky in some areas of this lake after a heavy rain, this lake has very clear water for most of the year. Using lighter line is key to getting more bites in clear water, especially in the middle of the day when the sun is out. Use 6 to 8 pound test line and you’ll get a lot more bites and still have enough strength to get some of the bigger fish into the boat. Fluorocarbon line or at the very least, a fluorocarbon leader will help get more bites too.
Deep Water Fishing
Beaver Lake is a very deep lake which can make fishing quite challenging for many anglers. The super clear water doesn’t help anglers since the fish can easily see your presentations and at times, they can be quite skittish. Whether you’re fishing open water or along the shorelines you’re most likely going to be fishing a little bit deeper than you would on lakes that are not as clear. From summer through fall, you will find lots of fish suspending 15 to 25 feet down out over deeper water.
Fish at Night
Night fishing is fairly popular here among bass anglers, however you can target a variety of fish here at night such as panfish, catfish, walleye to go along with smallmouth and largemouth bass. Summer and early fall are popular times to fish at night due to the intense heat during that time of year.
Fish the Creeks
There are so many large creek arms located on Beaver Lake and in these creek arms, there are smaller creeks that are connected to these larger creek arms as well. Spring is the best time to fish in these areas due to several different species of fish coming into these spots to spawn early in the season. Once summer pattern set in, the creek arms with deeper water will usually be more productive and the creek arms that are closer to the main lake will usually be good spots to look for larger schools of fish. In the fall, good numbers of baitfish push back into these creeks and you will see a variety of bass following them too. The spring bite tends to be better, but in the fall you can have some really good fishing also.
Fish the Docks
While Beaver Lake isn’t loaded with docks, there are still plenty of docks throughout the lake if you want to fish this pattern. In the spring, anglers will find all types of fish up around the docks such as bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass, spotted bass, smallmouth bass and more. In the summer and fall, the deeper docks are usually much more productive.
Fish the Main Lake
The main Lake offers some really good fishing opportunities from summer through winter. In the spring, a lot of fish move back into the creek arms to spawn and a lot of fish will stay in those creek arms until water temperatures heat up in the summer. This lake has deep water literally everywhere so these fish don’t have to go back out to the main lake to find deep water, but a lot of fish will transition out onto the main lake to follow schools of baitfish around the thermocline.
Fish Offshore
So many fish are found offshore on the deep, clear waters of Beaver Lake. From summer through fall, you can do well on this lake if you use your electronics and find the active schools of fish in deeper water. Striped bass are often found in the 20 to 60 foot depth range on Beaver Lake. Smallmouth bass and spotted bass will go deep and largemouth bass are found a lot deeper than most anglers are comfortable with fishing compared to other lakes.
Fish the Points
Beaver Lake has so many points that you can easily fish this pattern and never run out of spots to fish on your day on the water. Every point won’t be equal, however, there is some very good fishing for a variety of different species of fish around these points. The points that have quick access to deep water and some type of cover will usually hold more fish. Whether you’re fishing around larger rocks or wood, finding cover will definitely make a difference in how good each point will be.
Fish the Rocks
Beaver Lake is full of rocks, so plan on fishing rocky bottoms wherever you’re at in the lake. Whether you’re fishing shorelines with smaller rocks, larger rocks or some of the cliffs that have some awesome ledges with deep water, you’re going to be fishing rocks on Beaver Lake.
Fish the Shorelines
Because Beaver Lake has so much deep water, a lot of anglers will just pick a shoreline and start casting. Most of the shorelines offer quick access to deeper water, so you can usually find a variety of different species of fish either up against the shorelines or just off the shorelines. In the summer and fall, you will find a lot of fish suspending out over deeper water further away from the shorelines. For the most part though, there are plenty of good shorelines to fish where you can expect to catch some fish from spring through fall.
Fish the Wood
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission does a great job of placing fish attractors in a bunch of lakes throughout Arkansas. On Beaver Lake, they have files you can download that gives you access to the GPS coordinates so you can find these fish attractors much easier. The fish attractors will hold all types of fish, but most anglers like to fish these areas for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and panfish. There are plenty of trees in the lake, lay downs and bushes to fish along the shorelines depending on what creek arm you are in. When the bass move into the shallows to spawn, you’re going to find a lot of largemouth bass, spotted bass and even some smallmouth bass around the wood.
